British Queen faces legal battle over Koh-i-Noor diamond

The British Queen faces a legal battle over a £100million diamond which forms part of the Crown Jewels. India claims that the Koh-i-Noor gem was stolen by the British after colonisation of the Punjab. Now a group of Indian businessmen and Bollywood members have instructed British lawyers to begin High Court proceedings to force the UK government to return it.

They will argue that the 105-carat diamond is part of their country’s heritage. The gem, whose name means Mountain of Light, was a “gift” to Queen Victoria in 1850. It was first used in Queen Alexandra’s crown at her husband King Edward VII’s coronation in 1902.

It is now set in the late Queen Mother’s crown at The Tower of London. The case comes in the week India’s PM Narendra Modi is to visit the Queen.

From The Sun

Promises and Betrayals in the Middle East

Documentary on how British double-dealing during the First World War ignited the conflict between Arab and Jew in the Middle East.
This is a story of intrigue among rival empires; of misguided strategies; and of how conflicting promises to Arab and Jew created a legacy of bloodshed which determined the fate of the Middle East.

Snowden Smear Piece Sums Up Journalism's Sad State

"One of the authors of a controversial Sunday Times article alleging that Edward Snowden's actions endangered the lives of British spies defended the story in an interview on CNN Sunday.

The Young Turks

The best of George Galloway vs the Mainstream Media

George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer. Since late March 2012 he has been the Respect Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West.

The Crimean War

The Crimean War (October 1853 - February 1856) was a conflict between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire. The war was part of a long-running contest between major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire.
It is sometimes considered to be one of the first "modern" wars as it "introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare", including the first tactical use of railways and the electric telegraph.
The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (for The Times newspaper). News from war correspondents reaching Britain from the Crimea kept the public informed of the day-to-day realities of the battlefield for the first time.

Mathematics

Hollie Mcnish

British MPs' pay rise

David Cameron and Ed Miliband will face embarrassment this week when it is announced that MPs will be paid an annual salary of £74,000 from 2015 despite their calls for "cheaper politics". The independent parliamentary standards authority, Ipsa, is to reveal its decision to increase salaries by 11%. (The Observer)

The coalition of millionaires

David Cameron’s coalition Government may have adopted ‘fairness’ as one of its defining slogans, but his team of Ministers has been drawn almost exclusively from the ranks of the financial elite – leading to accusations that politics is once again becoming the preserve of the wealthy. Of the 29 Ministers entitled to attend Cabinet meetings, 23 have assets and investments estimated to be worth more than £1million. (Daily Mail - may 2010)

Prince Charles faces scrutiny by MPs over veto on laws

The British parliament is to investigate Prince Charles's controversial role in helping to shape government legislation in a move likely to increase pressure on Whitehall to reduce the secrecy around alleged royal lobbying.

MPs will examine the heir to the throne's little-known royal veto over any new laws that affect his private interests next month. The move follows a Guardian investigation in 2011 into the secretive constitutional loophole that revealed how ministers have been forced to seek permission from the prince to pass at least a dozen government bills.

The House of Commons political and constitutional reform committee, chaired by the Labour MP Graham Allen, will ask whether there is a risk that the requirement of royal consent, which is also granted by the Queen depending on the nature of the law being passed, "could be seen as politicising the monarchy".

It has emerged that Charles has held 36 meetings with ministers since the government took power in May 2010. He has met the prime minister, David Cameron, seven times, four different ministers in the Department for Communities and Local Government and held six meetings with ministers in the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which oversee areas in which the prince campaigns on planning and the environment respectively. Neither Whitehall nor Clarence House will elaborate on what was discussed in the private meetings.

More on The Guardian

British forces are detaining dozens in Afghanistan

Philip Hammond, the British defence secretary, has confirmed that dozens of people are being detained by British forces at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan following allegations that the army is running a secret detention facility at the base.

Hammond said 80 or 90 people were being held at the site. He said many of them posed a danger to British troops, and reiterated that they could not yet be handed over to Afghan authorities because of concerns that they would be mistreated.

UK lawyers acting for eight of the men, some of whom they say have been held for up to 14 months without charge, have launched habeas corpus applications in the UK high court in a bid to free them, raising comparisons with the outrage over the Guantánamo Bay prison camp.

The International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) rules dictate that British forces are only allowed to hold suspects for 96 hours. But in November last year, Hammond halted plans to hand suspected insurgents captured by British troops to Afghan security forces on the grounds they risked being abused and tortured.

The Guardian

Should the British Queen be given £5m more?

Queen Elizabeth II is to receive a £5m boost from the taxpayer to carry out her official duties. The sovereign grant, which covers the running costs of the Queen's household, has been set at £36.1m for 2013-14, a rise of 16.5% on the previous year. In a period of economic austerity should the monarchy receive such extra funding?

Vote on The Guardian

British bloggers may face libel fines under press regulation deal

British Bloggers could face high fines for libel under the new Leveson deal with exemplary damages imposed if they don't sign up to the new regulator, it was claimed on Tuesday. Kirsty Hughes, the chief executive of Index on Censorship, which campaigns for press freedom around the world, said it was a "sad day" for British democracy. "This will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on everyday people's web use," she said.

She said she feared thousands of websites could fall under the definition of a "relevant publisher" according to the rules passed in the House of Commons on Monday night as part of the courts bill. Under the rules sites that generate news and are written by several authors could risk exemplary damages. Hughes said: "Bloggers could find themselves subject to exemplary damages, due to the fact that they were not part of a regulator that was not intended for them in the first place."

More on The Guardian - It is terrifying how quickly we've slid from a free press to politicians stitching up press regulation (The Telegraph) - British Censorship on Wikipedia

British Defence Secretary wants to cut benefits, not troops

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has warned he will resist further cuts to the armed forces in Chancellor George Osborne's forthcoming spending review.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said other Conservative Cabinet ministers believed that the greatest burden of any cuts should fall on the welfare budget. There was, he said, a “body of opinion within Cabinet who believes that we have to look at the welfare budget again”, and that “we should be seeing welfare spending falling” as a result of rising employment levels.

More on The Independent

The Ritualistic Assassination of Princess Diana

More here..

Oxford College Being Sued For 'Discriminating Against The Poor'

An Oxford college is being sued for allegedly discriminating against poor students after it rejected applications from postgraduates who couldn't prove they had £21,082 for tuition and living costs. Damien Shannon, 26, is taking St Hugh's college to court claiming the policy amounts to "selecting by wealth" and bars all but the wealthiest of students.

Shannon had successfully applied to take an MSc in economic and social history but was told his place was conditional on meeting Oxford's financial requirements. According to the Guardian, Shannon's submitted legal papers state: "It is my contention that the effect of the financial conditions of entry is to select students on the basis of wealth, and to exclude those not in possession of it.

Huffington Post

UK support for US drones in Pakistan may be war crime

The British government's support for US drone operations over Pakistan may involve acts of assisting murder or even war crimes, the high court heard on Tuesday. In the first serious legal challenge in the English courts to the drones campaign, lawyers for a young Pakistani man whose father was killed by a strike from an unmanned aircraft are seeking to have the sharing of UK locational intelligence declared unlawful.

Noor Khan, 27, is said to live in constant fear of a repeat of the attack in North Waziristan in March last year that killed more than 40 other people, who are said to have gathered to discuss a local mining dispute. The British government has declined to state whether or not its signals intelligence agency GCHQ passes information in support of the CIA drone operations over Pakistan, although the court heard that media reports suggest that it does.

The Guardian

The £93m pastor accused of exploiting British worshippers

A church run by a controversial multi-millionaire African preacher has been accused of ‘cynical exploitation’ after its British branch received £16.7 million in donations from followers who were told that God would give them riches in return. Followers are ferried in double-decker shuttle buses to the church, handed slips inviting them to make debit card payments, and are even told obeying the ministry’s teachings will make them immune from illness.

Today’s Mail on Sunday revelations about the Winners’ Chapel movement have prompted the Charity Commission to review the charitable status  of the church – one of the fastest-growing in the UK. Winners’ Chapel is part of a worldwide empire of evangelical ministries run by Nigeria’s wealthiest preacher David Oyedepo, who has an estimated £93 million fortune, a fleet of private jets and a Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Mail Online

Cop tasers blind man in street

A BUNGLING policeman tasered a blind man in the street after mistaking his white stick – for a Samurai SWORD. He struck Colin Farmer, 61, in the back with the 50,000-volt stun gun before handcuffing him. The shocked man had been on his way to his local pub to meet friends. Cops had earlier received reports of a man roaming Chorley town centre, Lancs, armed with a sword. A patrolman spotted stoke victim Mr Farmer shuffling down the street with his white stick and wrongly assumed he was the swordsman.

He said: “The whole thing was like being trapped in a nightmare. “I didn’t even know the police were there. I heard this man shouting. I thought they were shouting at some people. I certainly didn’t know they were police - and I certainly didn’t know they were shouting at me. I thought I was going to be attacked by some hooligans. The next thing they fired a Taser at me, though I didn’t know it was a taser at the time.

“This policeman knelt on me and dragged my arms round my back and handcuffed me so tight I’ve had bruises since.” He was taken to Chorley Hospital for treatment and later released. Mr Farmer, who has suffered two strokes, added: “I walk at a snail’s pace. They could have walked past me, driven past me in the van, or said drop your weapon. It’s a sad excuse. They wouldn’t even stop when I said I’m blind. I was absolutely terrified. I thought any second I’m going to have another stroke and this one will kill me.”

The Sun - “Why giving the Met more Tasers is not the answer” on Mail Online

Attorney general blocks disclosure of Prince Charles letters to UK ministers

Guardian to challenge Grieve's ruling that release of 27 letters 'could damage prince's ability to perform duties as king'. The British government has blocked the disclosure of a set of confidential letters written by Prince Charles to ministers.

Dominic Grieve, the attorney general, issued a veto that puts an absolute block on the publication of 27 letters between the prince and ministers over a seven-month period. Grieve said the letters contained the "particularly frank" and "most deeply held personal views and beliefs" of the prince. The decision comes after seven government departments lost a long-running freedom of information tribunal over the disclosure of the letters.

The veto overrides last month's ruling by the tribunal that the public had a right to know how the prince sought to change government policy.

The Guardian

Britain warns Ecuador it could enter embassy to get Assange

Britain on Wednesday warned Ecuador that it could raid its London embassy if Quito does not hand over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been taking refuge at the mission since mid-June. In Quito, the Ecuadorean government said that any such action would be considered a violation of its sovereignty a "hostile and intolerable act."

"Under British law we can give them a weeks' notice before entering the premises and the embassy will no longer have diplomatic protection," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "But that decision has not yet been taken. We are not going to do this overnight. We want to stress that we want a diplomatically agreeable solution." In Quito, the government bristled at the threat and said it would announce its decision on Assange's asylum request on Thursday at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT).

"We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over," Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in an angry statement after a meeting with President Rafael Correa. "The move announced in the official British statement, if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly, hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty, which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way," Patino told reporters.

Reuters

Julian Assange will be granted asylum in Ecuador

Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, has agreed to grant Julian Assange asylum, officials within Ecuador's government have said. The WikiLeaks founder has been holed up at Ecuador's London embassy since 19 June, when he officially requested political asylum. "Ecuador will grant asylum to Julian Assange," said an official in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito, who is familiar with the government discussions.

At the moment he faces arrest as soon as he leaves the embassy for breaching his bail conditions. "For Mr Assange to leave England, he should have a safe pass from the British [government]. Will that be possible? That's an issue we have to take into account," said Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño.

Government sources in Quito confirmed that despite the outstanding legal issues, Correa would grant Assange asylum – a move that would annoy Britain, the US and Sweden. They added that the offer was made to Assange several months ago, well before he sought refuge in the embassy, and following confidential negotiations with senior London embassy staff.

The Guardian